Those figures were reported Friday as part of the General Electric Co.'s fourth quarter and year-end earnings.

The Connecticut-based conglomerate announced that quarterly earnings rose 13 percent to $4.7 billion. Revenues for the final three months of the year were up 4 percent to $39.3 billion.

Locally, GE Transportation, Erie County's largest employer with about 5,500 local employees, reported that fourth-quarter revenues fell 7 percent to $1.36 billion. But profits grew during that same period, increasing 12 percent to $252 million.

That's all good news to Roger Zaczyk, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers at GE Transportation. He, like many employees, is a stockholder.

But Zaczyk also sees those numbers as evidence that a company can pay union wages and make money.

In other words, he's not convinced the company's success hinges on shifting some operations to lower-paid workers in Fort Worth, Texas.

"We have proven to GE that this plant can make money," he said. "We have made lots of money for the GE Corporation. Yet they are taking that very successful moneymaking operation and moving it to Texas."

The company, which built 650 locomotives in 2012, will begin producing locomotives in Fort Worth early this year. The Texas plant already is producing drive systems for off-highway mining trucks, a product that is also built in Erie.

Zaczyk is among those worried that the company might eventually shift more work to the plant in Texas.

At least for now, however, Zaczyk said work at GE Transportation remains steady, aside from some temporary lack-of-work slowdowns on the mining side of the business.

There's little to suggest an immediate slowdown at GE Transportation, which General Electric Chairman Jeff Immelt honored recently as the company's business of the year in 2012.

In fact, the transportation business booked $1.3 billion in new orders during the fourth quarter.

That's up 7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011.

"Fourth quarter 2012 capped off a very successful year during which GE Transportation delivered record-level revenues," said Lorenzo Simonelli, the company's chief executive. "Looking ahead, our recent strategic acquisitions and substantial investments in technology and new production capacity have positioned us well to continue to deliver value to our customers and for strong operating performance in 2013."

Zaczyk said union members are happy to be part of that success.

"Our people are making money for them and we are proud of that," he said.